The big political news this weekend is that the Bush administration wants Congress to sign off on $700 billion to … well, it’s not exactly clear. From the article:

The proposal, not quite three pages long, was stunning for its stark simplicity. It would raise the national debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion. And it would place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, granting the Treasury secretary unprecedented power to buy and resell mortgage debt.

Shockingly, there’s not a single real economist who thinks that this is a very good idea. Literally. Steve Benen, who I’m pretty sure makes it his job to read every news article ever, can’t think of any, and Josh Marshall is actually recruiting his readers to hunt some down.

Meanwhile, the presidential candidates are doing what presidential candidates do. Barack Obama doesn’t like the plan very much. John McCain is “greatly concerned.” I put the odds of either of them actually showing up in the Senate and using their considerable influence to try and kill this thing at very, very low.

As for the congresspeople who still show up to work, the House’s Minority Leader, Republican John Boehner, is begging his caucus not to let their party’s supposed fiscal conservatism to get in the way of wild fiscal irresponsibility. And Speaker Nancy Pelosi is taking a hard line against writing a “blank check.”

Unfortunately, if the past two years have taught us anything, it’s that congressional Democrats, even when they’re in the majority, have gotten amazingly good at failing to prevent the Bush administration from getting the bill they want.